


Pest Control

by subtlehysteria



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Fun, Gen, Space Caterpillars - Freeform, Team as Family, mild swearing, nothing major, this is silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 20:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16919865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subtlehysteria/pseuds/subtlehysteria
Summary: Team Voltron becomes acquainted with Pidge's new pets(Set after Season 2, Episode 1)





	Pest Control

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo this is technically a piece from my [ Surviving Space With Your Ex Fiancé ](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1174466) series but I loved the chapter so much that I wanted to post it as its own stand-alone fic. You don't need to have read the series to understand this fic, just know that Adam (Shiro's ex) is a part of the main cast and is with them on the Castle. Otherwise, I hope you like this and enjoy Pidge and the caterpillars' misadventures!

**i**

“Pidge… what are those?”

Pidge froze in her pilot seat, eyes slowly creeping up to the chat screen that had opened up in her lion. Adam was glaring down at her over the frames of his glasses.

“What are what?” Pidge asked, trying to play innocent, although they both knew she was anything but – spending time with Adam inevitably had that effect.

Adam leaned forward, glare intensifying as he pointed to something over Pidge’s shoulder. “What. Are. Those?”

Slowly, Pidge looked behind her to see the junk-look-a-likes she had made of her friends. She let out a sigh of relief before quickly recovering herself, trying to act cool and collected – because that was totally a natural state for Pidge, uh huh.

“Oooooh,” she said, turning back to look at Adam. “Those are some sculptures I made.”

Adam squinted. “Is that supposed to be me?”

Pidge looked to the offending dummy Adam was pointing at. Its head was on the large side, scrap wire twisted together to create rectangular frames. It had a cute button nose with a wide gaping mouth. AKA, the perfect replicate of one Adam Wadekar.

“Mayhaps,” Pidge said, giving Adam a sly grin.

“Don’t ‘mayhaps’ me, you little gremlin! You – WHAT IS THAT?!”

Pidge grabbed her bayard, activating her grappling hook and aiming it to the supposed intruder, only to find no one in the cockpit.

“What are you talking about?” Pidge asked, still on high alert.

Adam’s eyes were fixed to a point above Pidge’s head. Slowly, she tilted her chin up to find Newt looking down at her innocently.

Pidge deactivated her bayard, smiling up at Newt. “Oh, this is my friend!”

Adam’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Friend?”

Pidge nodded, reaching for Newt to give them a scratch under the chin. They trilled, the blue markings on their cheeks glowing. “Yeah, they’re a space caterpillar! Or, well, that’s what I’m calling them. They lived in the junkyard I crashed landed in!”

“So you thought it was a good idea to bring one home?” Adam said, voice accusing.

Pidge waved him off. “Pfft, no. I brought two!”

Right on cue, Leo floated up to Pidge’s shoulder, yellow fur poofing up as she gave them a stroke.

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose, sliding down what looked to be Shiro’s chair on the bridge until his head nearly hit the seat. “Of course you did.”

Pidge worried at her bottom lip, eyes dancing between Adam and her new friends. “You’re not gonna tell on me, are you?”

Adam considered her for a moment, lips pinched before he blew a raspberry in defeat. “No, I’m not.”

Pidge pumped a fist in the air, nearly knocking Leo off his perch in the process. “Yes! Thank you, Adam!”

Adam waggled a finger at her, “If anyone asks, they’re your contraband. I didn’t agree to any of this.”

Pidge made a cross above her heart. “Promise.”

Adam nodded in approval. “They’re kinda cute. Do they always stare at you though?”

Pidge shrugged. “Yeah, you get used to it.”

Adam hummed. “Alright then. I’ll see you in a bit.” He signed off, his screen blinking out and leaving Pidge alone with her contraband caterpillars.

“Well…” Pidge said, looking to Leo and Newt. “That went well.”

 

**ii**

Everything was going according to plan.

Pidge had Newt and Leo wait in the Green Lion until everyone had gone off to bed before she went back to fetch them. Unfortunately, she didn’t own a trench coat, otherwise, this whole sneaking-perhaps-illegal-fauna-onto-the-Castle thing would have been a lot easier. It also might have stopped her from running smack-bang into Allura without a way of disguising said illegal fauna.

Allura stumbled, looking down to Pidge, whose feet had suddenly decided to become cinderblocks. Allura’s ears twitched in question, her eyes then landing on Pidge’s two compatriots on either of her shoulders.

And then she screamed.

“PIDGE WHAT ARE THOSE!”

“THEY’RE JUST SPACE CATERPILLARS!” Pidge yelled back.

Allura’s face scrunched up in disgust. She pointed a shaky finger at the caterpillars. “THEY ARE VERMIN! GET THEM OUT OF HERE AT ONCE!”

Pidge stomped her foot, crossing her arms and giving a good old-fashion puppy dog pout. “BUT _ALLURA!_ ”

“No! I will not – what are you doing with your face?”

Pidge’s pout grew exponentially, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. Allura looked absolutely horrified.

“Stop that!” she said.

Pidge only persisted, tears begging to spill over. Leo and Newt must have caught on because they floated to either side of her cheeks, smooshing her in an adorable fluffy sandwich of pleading.

Allura’s bottom lip wobbled before she gave a groan of defeat. “Alright! You can keep them! Just please, stop with that face! You look like I just mercilessly kicked a pufflemonger.”

Pidge sniffed, tears instantly disappearing. “Don’t know what those are, but okay. Thanks, Allura!” Pidge hurried down the hall before Allura could change her mind, Leo and Newt trailing behind her.

Once they made it to the safety of her bedroom, Pidge leaned against her door, a little out of breath and with a big grin on her face. She raised a fist. “Nice going, guys.”

Leo and Newt shared a look before individually nudging their heads to Pidge’s fist in solidarity.

 _Heh,_ Pidge thought as she snuggled down with her new bunk buddies in her ever-messy bed. _Works every time._

 

**iii**

It was just the usual midnight snack run if that included sneaking two partially-illegal space caterpillars into the kitchen to feed them their daily dose of food goo.

Pidge was currently sitting on the kitchen counter, sockless on one foot, hair probably a mess, spoon-feeding Leo and Newt.

She didn’t know why, but for some reason, they didn’t understand the concept of eating out of a bowl. They demanded to be spoon fed. Pidge had learned the hard way. They gave this high-pitched, ear-piercing squealing noise the first time Pidge tried to persuade them to feed themselves. Suffice to say, she had learned her lesson.

Leo finished with their spoonful, Pidge scraping her spoon through her bowl of food goo and having a bite herself before offering up the next glob to Newt. That was when Hunk entered.

He froze upon seeing Pidge and the caterpillars. For a second, Pidge thought he had stopped functioning, but then Hunk’s eyes began to widen to the size of saucers, his mouth forming the biggest sunshine-smile she had ever witnessed.

“Oh. My. STARS! THEY ARE ADORABLE!” he said, running to Pidge and stopping short of barreling into her. Newt and Leo flew into Pidge’s hair, hiding in the bird’s nest from Hunk’s probably very intimidating size.

Pidge placed her bowl on the counter, raising her hands. “Hunk. Calm down.”

Hunk took a deep breath, although he was still bouncing on the balls of his feet, eyeing Pidge’s hair with great rapture.

“Can I hold one?” he asked.

“If you quit scaring them, then maybe,” Pidge said.

Hunk stopped his bouncing, taking a step back. He shrunk in on himself. “Oh, sorry little guys,” he said, addressing Pidge’s hair.

Pidge could hear Leo and Newt tittering to themselves as if having a very serious discussion. Then, slowly, Newt putt-putted out of the safety of Pidge’s hair and approached Hunk.

Hunk held his breath, remaining still as a statue as Newt came face-to-face with him. Newt stared at him, unblinking.

Hunk looked helplessly to Pidge. “Uhhhh what do I do?” he whispered.

“They’re sizing you up,” Pidge explained. “Just give ‘em a minute.”

Hunk nodded, turning his gaze back to Newt’s unblinking stare.

After a minute of this, Newt must have come to the conclusion that Hunk would not, in fact, eat and/or harm them as they closed the distance between them, rubbing against Hunk’s cheek. Hunk instantly melted, his hand coming up to scratch Newt on their head.

“Oh. My. _Gosh_ ,” he whispered, looking to Pidge in amazement. Leo floated out of Pidge’s hair, perching on her shoulder and watching Newt. Leo was the shiest of the two, Newt being a little more inquisitive and outgoing.

“What’s their names?” Hunk asked, giggling as Newt slid under his chin.

“The green one’s Newt, as in Isaac Newton,” Pidge said, pointing to Hunk’s cuddle buddy, “and this little guy is Leo, as in Galileo.”

“Cuuuuuute!” Hunk said, although most of his attention was on giving Newt scratches. Pidge smiled to herself, enjoying the display until Hunk’s fingers edged down to Newt’s stomach.

“No, wait! Don’t!”

“SHIT!”

Pidge winced, Hunk staring down at his ruined shirt front in horror. A foul smell began filling the room. Pidge pinched her nose shut. “Yeah… they don’t like belly rubs.”

“Now you tell me!”

 

**iv**

“Hey Pidgeon, can I get those head–” Lance stopped in his tracks, looking between Pidge and the two caterpillars who were currently getting a bath.

“Uhhh, what’s goin’ on in here?” Lance said, leaning in the bathroom doorway, eyebrow arched in question.

Pidge huffed, blowing a piece of fringe out of her face. “Well, I’m _trying_ to give these guys their bath but _someone_ is being difficult!” She scowled at Leo, who was currently half covered in bubbles. They promptly vibrated, the suds flying directly onto Pidge’s glasses.

She heard a snicker behind her, a phone camera going off.

“Don’t encourage them!” she moaned.

“I’m sorry!” Lance said, even as he stepped into the bathroom to get a better angle, “It’s just… this is adorable. I’ve never seen you all domestic.”

“I am not domestic!” Pidge said, slamming a fist into the pool of water in her sink and causing half of it to spill onto the bathroom floor.

Pidge groaned forehead thunking onto the edge of her sink. “This is hopeless.” She tilted her head to the side, sink edge digging into her temple as she looked up at Lance. “They won’t sit still. As soon as I get Newt to behave, Leo escapes the sink and vice versa! Bae Bae was never this difficult…”

“Who’s Bae Bae?” Lance asked, finally putting his phone away.

“The family dog, although technically he’s mine. I picked him out when I was like… two? Maybe three.” Pidge straightened up, pouting down at Newt and Leo who didn’t look the least bit ashamed of their bad bath behaviour. “I refused to leave the shelter until we adopted him.”

“Have you always been this stubborn?” Lance asked with a chuckle.

Pidge grinned. “Absolutely. There’s a reason I wear the pants in the siblingship.”

“Siblingship?”

“Sibling relationship, with my… brother.” Pidge tapered off, good mood dropping instantly. “He’s five years older than me, but we always got along growing up. He was… he always just went with the flow. If I wanted to go chasing fairies in the backyard he’d gather all the required materials – jars, butterfly nets, cake – and we’d make a whole expedition of it. It was the perfect amalgamation of science and childhood fantasy.” Pidge sighed at the memory, at how seriously Matt had taken their search. He treated it as if they were on the brink of discovering a new species. He had been the one to teach her how to write code, how to build her own laptop, how to make robots and hack into the Garrison. He’d taught her so much, had opened her eyes to the world of science. And in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

“Hey.” Pidge felt a hand placed softly between her shoulder blades. She looked up to find Lance smiling down at her, genuine and fond. “We’re gonna get him back. If anyone can find their lost brother out in space, it’s your stubborn ass.”

Pidge huffed a laugh, sniffling a little to fight back the tears. “Yeah, I just… I hate not knowing where he is.”

Lance nodded, guiding Pidge to lean against his side. He squeezed her tightly to him. Slowly, she draped her arms around his waist, returning the embrace.

“How about this,” Lance said. “I wash the green critter while you get the yellow one?”

Pidge blinked up at him, her mouth parting in surprise. “You’ll help me?”

“Of course!” Lance said, rolling up the sleeves of his nightgown. “Anything for my little green gremlin.” The way Lance said it, however, sounded like something more special, just like how Matt used to say _Anything for my little sister._

Pidge didn’t call him out on it though. Instead, she pushed her sleeves back up and met Lance’s eyes with cold, hard determination. These caterpillars were going to be squidgy-clean by the end of the night.

“Let’s do this thing.”

 

**v**

“Pidge, I was wondering if… what are you doing?”

Pidge looked up from her workstation, scooting her goggles up onto her forehead to better see Shiro. He stood in the doorway to Green’s hangar, staring with a strange look on his face.

“Oh, hi,” she said. “I’m just working on a prototype for Rover 2.O.” Flipping her goggles down, she continued with her work.

“Uhhh…” Shiro said, inching over to her. “Who’s your friends?”

Pidge sighed, pushing her goggles up once more. She used her thumb to indicate the fluff balls resting on her shoulder and in her hair. “Newt and Leo. They’re space caterpillars.”

“Uh huh,” Shiro said, eyeing them warily. “And… what are they doing here?”

“I adopted them from the junk pile I crash landed on,” Pidge said with a shrug. “They got really attached to me and, being the generous person I am, I decided to take them under my wing.”

“You couldn’t resist, could you?”

“NO!” Pidge sighed, hanging her head in shame and nearly dismounting Leo in the process. “I mean, look at them, Shiro! They. Are. _Adorable_. Like, Beezer level adorable.”

Shiro arched a curious brow. “I thought you hated Beezer after he betrayed us?”

“I do,” Pidge said, clenching her hand into a fist. “But that doesn’t make him any less adorable.”

Shiro shook his head with a heavy sigh. “Riiight. Anyway, I was going to ask if that translation I sent you was finished processing?”

Pidge dropped the tool she was currently using (a hybrid of a screwdriver and a miniature welding machine) and turned to her laptop, tapping in a passcode that was probably ten letters too complicated before scrolling to the latest translation through her ALT.

“Yep, it’s done. I can send it to your datapad if you like?”

“Great, thanks Pidge. Really appreciate it,” Shiro said, giving her hair a ruffle – minding Leo – before turning back towards the exit.

“Hey, wait,” Pidge said, causing Shiro to stop short. “Is this,” she squinted at her screen. “Is this poetry?”

“What? No!” Shiro blurted far too quickly to not be suspicious.

Pidge continued scrolling through the translation, speed reading the lines of roughly-translated Altean. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

Shiro hung his head low, rubbing at his temples. “Please don’t tell Adam.”

Pidge considered Shiro’s pleading look before slowly grinning to herself. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Shiro said with a sigh of relief.

“If!” Pidge continued, “We get to sleep in an hour late tomorrow morning.”

Shiro’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? We have training in the morning!”

“Well, if you don’t want the extra hour, I guess that’s fine. Besides, I’m sure Adam would love to hear some of these sweet, sweet sonnets you’ve got here,” Pidge said, picking a line at random and beginning to recite it. “‘Oh, how I love thee, my darling juneberry bud. No flow’r could compare to such a beauty as thee’.”

“Okay, I get it.”

“‘The apples of thy cheeks bloom a rosy red, ready for the picking’, ooooh, kinky,” Pidge said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Fine! You get to sleep in tomorrow!”

“And no running laps in training!”

“Pidge!”

“‘Can I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou aren’t more lovely’ – wait is this Shakespeare?”

“Okay, enough. Yes, to the extra hour and we won’t run laps.”

Pidge sent the translation through to Shiro’s datapad before closing the tab, smiling all the while. “Knew you’d see it my way.”

Shiro turned on his heel, stomping to the exit as he grumbled something along the lines of _gremlin_ and _space dad_ and _sucks_ under his breath.

Once Shiro was clearly gone, Pidge re-opened the tab, typing in a new recipient and clicking send.

She leaned back in her chair, hands locked behind her head, waiting.

A few minutes passed before a _ding!_ went off. Pidge pulled out her phone, finding a new notification from Adam.

 **aDAMN:** I love you

 **spacebirb:** enjoy sleeping in tomorrow morning ;)

With that, Pidge tucked her phone away and got back to work on Rover 2.O.

 

**vi**

“Coran, I don’t think this is necessary.”

“Oh, nonsense!”

Pidge was passed another toy which gave an alarming honking noise when squeezed.

“Really,” she said, subtly chucking it to the other side of the room. “Newt and Leo are already happy with the first toys you gave me.”

Coran stopped his scrounging through the trunk he had pulled out of goodness knows where, hair in disarray. “Oh… are you sure?”

Pidge started nodding but at Coran’s disappointed look, she stopped. She pinched her lips together, trying to stay strong. But then Coran’s ears drooped and even his moustache looked like it was wilting in disheartenment and _fucking quiznack!_

“Actually,” Pidge said, just as Coran was beginning to close the trunk. “I’m sure they could use one or two more.”

Coran’s spirits immediately lifted, his moustache quivering in excitement. “Oh well, I have just the thing!” He dove head-first back into the trunk, throwing out toy after toy in search of something specific.

He was humming a strange tune during his search and Pidge may or may not be smiling because she kinda cared about their weird space uncle, okay?

“Which do you think?” Coran asked, pulling up two nearly identical toys except for the fact that one was spotted pink, and the other a barely-shade-darker.

“Uhhh,” Pidge said, looking to Newt and Leo, who had been no help whatsoever in choosing their supposed ‘of the utmost importance’ toys. “Newt says the one on the left,” Pidge finally said.

Coran looked at the light-pink-spotted toy, eyeing it closely before chucking it over his shoulder. “No, this one is better,” he said, offering up the chosen toy.

Pidge tried to take it, but her hands were currently full of other toys ranging from all sizes, shapes and textures. Coran, realizing her struggle, placed the toy precariously on top of the pile.

“There!” he said, clasping his hands together in glee. “Perfect!”

Pidge nodded, even though she could barely see over the pile. “Thanks, Coran!”

She was about to start shuffling out the door when Coran stopped her. “Actually, I think there’s one more –”

 

**vii**

Keith was about ready to conk out after his solo training session when he heard a distinctly Pidge-like voice scream at him down the hall.

“KeeeeeIIIITTTTHHH!”

He spun around, spotting Pidge rounding the corner, chasing a floating yellow puffball.

“STOP THAT CATERPILLAR!” she yelled.

Keith immediately went into battle mode, widening his stance and stretching his arms out like a goalie, prepared to stop the puffball at any cost. As it came whizzing past him, he snatched it out of the air, tumbling to the floor as it tried to pull out of his grasp. It even managed to start dragging him until Pidge latched onto his foot, bringing them both to a stop. Pidge then unceremoniously crawled up Keith’s body, practically sitting on his face to snatch the puffball from his hands. At his insistent nudging, she slid off his face, instead sitting in the center of his chest.

“What… is that?” Keith asked in-between wheezes.

Pidge clutched the fluffball to her chest, grappling with it. “It’s Leo,” she said.

Keith leaned up on his elbows, squinting at the miniature duel occurring. “And what is Leo?”

“A space – let go! – caterpillar!” Pidge finally managed to grab what she needed, tugging it from the mouth of the caterpillar and holding it up as her prize. “Ah ha!”

In her hand was what looked to be a computer chip, glistening from spit. Leo wiggled out of her grasp, looking unfazed as he settled into her hair. He gave a small purring sound before disappearing into her mess of cowlicks.

Keith looked between Pidge, the chip and the camouflaged caterpillar and decided to call it a night.

“Okay, while that was… weird,” he said, lightly pushing Pidge off his chest so that he could stand, “I have to go shower.”

“Yeah,” Pidge said, cleaning the computer chip with the hem of her shirt, “you kinda stink.”

“Thanks,” Keith said in all his deadpan glory. As he started down the hall, he felt something soft tickle the back of his neck. He jerked, turning to find the yellow puffball – Leo, was it? –staring at him.

“Pidge?”

“They like you!” Pidge called from her spot further down the hall.

“Yeah well,” Keith said, trying not to let Leo’s piercing gaze get to him, “that’s nice and all but – and now it’s snuggling me.”

Leo dove under the longer strands of hair at the nape of Keith’s neck, making a strange tittering sound as they settled there.

“Uuuuh…”

“Here,” Pidge said, jogging up to him and reaching for Leo, who gave a disappointed squeak as Pidge extracted them from their hiding spot. “They like nesting in hair,” she said with an easy shrug as if to say _what can ya do?_

Keith found his eyes falling onto Leo, who was staring imploringly up at him. Pidge did not seem to notice this as she said a “Good night” and started trudging down the hall.

“Pidge, wait!” Keith said before he could stop himself. Pidge looked over her shoulder at him, eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah?”

“If they want,” Keith said, fumbling with his words. “Um… they can stay with me, uh, Leo that is.”

“I thought you needed to shower?” Pidge asked, facing him fully with a hand on her hip.

“Well, yeah,” Keith said, “but afterwards, if they still want… It's just… they made this face?”

Pidge nodded almost regretfully. “They got to you too, huh?”

Keith sighed, hiding behind his bangs as a muttered a quiet, “Maybe.”

Suddenly, a spot of yellow was in his vision, and Leo was looking up at him, waiting expectantly. With another sigh, Keith said, “Go ahead,” and Leo instantly took up the offer. They zoomed over Keith’s shoulder and shuffled under his hair, nestling onto the back of his neck.

“Guess they’re staying with you tonight,” Pidge said, not sounding the least bit upset.

“Guess so,” Keith said, reaching back to give Leo a stroke. They tittered, vibrating with happiness. It was both weird and kind of sweet at the same time.

“Okay, just don’t let them eat the soap. It makes them sick!” Pidge said, giving a final wave over her shoulder before disappearing back to wherever she came from.

“Alright…” Keith said, heading towards his room. “Let’s get our snuggle on… I guess.”


End file.
